This invention relates to a collapsible cellular article carrier of the basket type preferably for accommodating a number of bottles. The carrier usually is formed from a single blank of e.g. paperboard and comprises a series of cells provided on opposite sides of a longitudal medial partition which incorporates a handle structure by which the carrier can be grasped and carried. Each cell in each series is separated from an adjacent cell in the same cell series by means of a hingable transverse partition structure which extends from the medial partition and is secured to an adjacent side wall of the carrier by means of an anchoring tab carried by the transverse partition struction. This form of collapsible article carrier for bottles is well known. In some applications however, article carriers of this general description are adapted for use with plastics bottle crates. In this connection the crates are utilized to accommodate several such article carriers filled with bottles or, alternatively, a multiplicity of single ie. unpackaged bottles.
It is known specifically to adapt article carriers to be received in plastics bottle crates and for this purpose the bottom wall panels of such article carriers include apertures by which the carriers can be received on retaining posts upstanding from the bottom of a crate.
It has been found that difficulties would arise with the collapsibility of this type of article carrier when adapted for fitment into certain forms of these crates. The compatibility between the basket type article carrier and the crate can be enhanced if the article carrier is better adapted to conform to the configuration of the internal structure of the crate. An article carrier according to the present invention is formed so that each of its corners (where a side wall meets an end wall) is formed, by the provision of an additional corner panel, to provide a "bevelled" corner arrangement. Not only does this arrangement improve, in certain important instances, the compatibility between the basket type article carrier and the crate but also provides an improved appearance to the carton.
However, such a bevelled corner structure can make collapse of the carton into a flat form for shipment unattainable. Bevelled corner panels in these types of bottle carrier are known per se, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 2,433,676.